In Praise of Scribes
Scribes, therefore, give strength to words, memory to things, vigor to times. If you remove them from the Church, faith wavers, charity grows cold, hope falls, justice perishes, law is confounded, the Gospel passes into oblivion. In short, if writing fails, the people will be scattered, devotion will be extinguished, and the peace of catholic unity, thrown into confusion, will be disturbed. But without scribes, writing cannot long remain safe, since it is broken by accident and corrupted by age. For printing is a thing of paper and in a short time is wholly consumed. But the scribe, entrusting letters to parchment, extends both himself and the things he writes into a far distant time.
Thus he enriches the Church, preserves the faith, destroys heresies, repels vices, instructs morals, and gives increase to virtues. The devoted scribe, such as we intend to describe, praises God, gladdens the angels, strengthens just people, corrects sinners, commends the humble, preserves the good, battles down the proud, and condemns the obstinate. The scribe marked by piety is God’s herald, because he announces God’s will both to those present and to those to come: promising eternal life to the good, pardon to the penitent, punishment to the negligent, and damnation to those who despise it.
What is more salutary than this art, what more commendable in piety? God loves it; angels honor it; all the citizens of heaven venerate it. For this is the art that fashions weapons for the faithful against heretics, that casts down the proud, strips demons by its strength, and sets a rule of living for Christians. This is the art that teaches the ignorant, strengthens the faint-hearted, cherishes the devout, and embraces the peaceable with love. What could I say that would be worthy in praise of the scribe? Whatever I shall say is below his praises, because the narrow spirit within me will be constrained before material worthy of so great an honor is lacking.
I confess that there happens to me what very often happens to unskilled orators: terrified by the majesty of the matters about which they have begun to speak, they can neither say what they feel nor, because of shame, presume to be silent. And so it happens that, while they fear to transgress the order and rules of speaking, they fall away from the useful purpose set before them. For just as the spirit of prophecy sometimes, for a time and for a useful reason, leaves even the prophets, so too customary eloquence is not always present to orators. How much more easily, then, is trembling struck into me, who am neither a rhetorician nor fit to adorn so broad a subject with speech. My tongue clings to my now dry palate; breath presses upon my dry innards; my pen trembles, looking again to Jesus; in my breast alone the desire and love of the scribe remain strong. Therefore, when I fail, let no one think that the subject matter was lacking, but that words were lacking to the speaker. Yet I shall do what I can, with Christ’s help, since charity alone is the cause of our labor, and it is rightly proclaimed able to do all things.
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